Changes

Chapter 3

Fun with medicine and walks

What happened? One second you were in the hospital, about to fight off people who came looking for you, and the next you were.... here. Where are you? You open your eyes to a hospital room. The same one you had been in before the attack. Why were you here? An abundance of questions fills your mind before you can process all of them and soon you are wide awake. You sit in bed for a short while, attempting to get your bearings. Any attempts at making a movement uprising against your body was quelled by the pain receptors once more.

You decide it is time to ask someone other than yourself these questions and press the service button on your bed remote. Two minutes pass before your room is intruded by your doctor.

“Hello there son. How are you feeling?”

You are about to answer with a calm yes, until the pain squad got off of lunch break mid word.

“OHMYGODITFEELSLIKEIBROKEEVERYTHING!!!” You say.

The doctor grins and says with a chuckle, “Well that’s what happens when a man with three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and six bullet wounds decides to stand up and kill a man after dodging rifle bullets.”

You didn’t find the joke very funny. Luckily for you, the doctor takes pity on you and gives you some fast acting painkillers. Within minutes the medicine comes into effect and takes the pain receptors out for drinks.

“Thanks Doc.” you say, “Now, do you think you could explain to me exactly how I got here again and what happened?”

The doctor explains that after you had passed out Luke had taken charge of the situation. He only fired a few bullets at the men, keeping them down until the backup came.

“If he’s fine, then where is he?” You ask, realizing that he wasn’t around.

The doctor replies calmly, “He’s out interrogating two of the men they caught. They were taken back to Canterlot. Don’t worry about any other attacks though; the royal guard left some soldiers to protect the town.”

You ask a bit more about the condition of the town and would like to continue the conversation but are overcome by exhaustion. The doctor leaves you to sleep.

The next week progresses slowly, but otherwise well. The healing process had been helped along very quickly by the extra E-cans and medicine. The bullet wounds had healed, your shoulder was in good condition, and you are able to start walking again. Lately, you have been taking strolls through the town to relax. It was a nice break from the usual life you lived, and you told yourself that if you ever got out of this problem with Apex that you would move here. The town was often calm and quiet. Your personal favorite place to walk was around the lake on the outskirts of town. There was barely ever anyone out here, except for the occasional rainbow-maned pony or yellow one.

Today, you were feeling exceptionally well and decided to walk through town. You often stayed away from here for two reasons. one : because you liked the peace and quiet of the lake, and two : because there was some psycho pink pony who worked around there and you did everything in your power to avoid her. Today was a bit different though. You kind of missed the movement of large crowds and the hustle and bustle of towns. Although this place was no city, it definitely had it’s fair share of occupants. It was warm and sunny out today, and apparently you weren't the only one who liked to walk. The streets were full of life and several stores had made stands outside their buildings to sell things to passersby.

You felt good and decided that you needed some exercise. The doctor told you not to over do it, but that you could start doing strenuous activities again. You decided to go run around the town and began to head towards that one shop that sold something like pencils and beds, or at least that’s what you think it was. That store was a perfect starting point for a run and maybe had some willing racers that could help you test out your limits. As you walk through the crowd you look around to make sure the psycho pony wasn't around here. She wasn't and so you slowed your pace a bit, deciding to take in the scenery. Just behind you was the town library, to your left were some small cafes and to your right were some shops that sold assortments of things.

You are daydreaming when you hear someone yell. You look around for the source and spot a blue pony yelling about her purse, pointing towards another pony to your left. This one was running at full speed away from the woman. He was wearing a ski mask and was carrying a small purse in his mouth.

Bingo. You just found your racing partner.

music

You run towards the closest shop to your left. It was a small cafe with several tables surrounding the outside. You jump onto one of the tables and vault onto the building. You begin running towards the next shop, called sugarcube corner, and jump. You land on the roof and use the wavy pattern of the ceiling to slide down towards the next building. You jump onto the next shop, this one a diner, and continue the process with every adjoining building. You looked around for the thief and spot him two buildings ahead of you.

You pick up the pace in an attempt to catch up with him and begin making up some ground. Within a couple of minutes you are running adjacent to him. Although you weren't exactly at tip-top shape he had to run through the crowd which slowed him down tremendously. You see that the buildings are about to cut off ahead of you, and speed up to get just a bit ahead of the thief. You yell at him to stop but he ignores your warnings. He comes to a break in the crowd and speeds up, passing you once again. He turns left into a small alley in between the building you were on and the one in front of you. You were at top speed and couldn't make a complete stop if you were going to catch this guy so you don’t slow down. You were getting a bit sore and decided to set the finish line for this run. You jump and instead of aiming for the next building this time you aim for the alley.

You begin to fall into the alley, luckily it was thin enough that you were able to stick out your arms and legs to slide down. Your left shoulder was holding up well and you touched the floor within seconds. You land only feet behind the thief and begin sprinting at full pace after him. You didn't bring your weapons out today and you were starting to regret it as this masked villain was pulling away. You haul out to try and end this and start to catch up, though you were still a good ways behind him. He was heading towards the Everfree forest, or at least that’s what you think it was called. You were still learning names. You look around for something to help you and spot that quiet yellow pony walking down the road just ahead. The thief passed her, startling the mare and angering a small rabbit on her back. Bingo, tic-tac-toe three in a row, allons-y and all that crap. You sprint passed the yellow pony, leaving her with one less bunny on your way by. The rabbit thrashes in your grip before you point towards the thief.

“Help me catch him and you get all the carrots you want.” you say, panting.

The bunny contemplates it for a second and then nods his head in agreement. You use the last of your energy to get within two feet of the masked thief. You take the bunny in both hands and quickly toss him at the thief, never stopping your movement. The bunny hits his mark and lands on top of the thief's head. Without missing a beat the rabbit clutches on for dear life and soon begins scratching and kicking the head and face of your target. Your racing partner slows down in an attempt to shake off the rabbit.

This is all you needed and you catch up to the thief easily. You hurl yourself towards the masked thief and your shoulder makes contact with his head, knocking him out instantly. You lie down, or should you say land, next to the thief and try to catch your breath. The police came seconds later along with the woman whose purse was stolen. She thanks you and introduces herself as Lyra. You tell her that it was no trouble and let her continue on with her day. The thief was from fillydelphia and was wanted in three kingdoms for theft. You didn’t catch his name before the police hauled him off. The bunny was fine and as soon as you were able to stand started asking for his carrots. You talk him into waiting five minutes and walk back towards his caretaker.

“I believe he belongs to you ma’am.” You say as politely as possible. She wasn’t too mad about the situation and accepted your apology.

You hand her some money for carrots, forcing her to take it after a five minute conversation consisting of nothing but, “please take it. I insist.” “No thank you” “no,no please take it.” “Oh, I could never.” repeated over and over again.

You walk, or should you say hobble, back towards the hospital, on the ground this time. Many people applaud your 'heroics' as they called them and several stores offered you free meals anytime. You were humble and only asked for slight assistance back to the hospital. The doctor had heard about what happened and had a hissy fit, but you were too tired to listen to what he was telling you. You crawled into bed and fell to sleep within seconds.

feelsgoodman